New Newport Beach Civic Center and Park Aiming for LEED Silver

Within four months, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson’s new Civic Center and Park in Newport Beach, California will be mostly complete. This project will feature a new City Hall, a 17,000-square-foot expansion of the existing library, a 450-space parking garage, and a new 17-acre park. The site of the project is located on two parcels bordered by MacArthur Boulevard and Avocado Avenue. And the project is under budget: the current cost estimate is about $128 million for all the project components -- down from the original estimate of $131.4 million.

The design of the City Hall is marked by the iconic ‘sail’ of the council chambers room as well as the rhythmic, wave-shaped roof structure, which extends throughout the length of the building. This roof shape provides natural daylighting and ventilation for the building occupants. Outside of the entrance to the City Hall will be a civic lawn that will become the communities meeting area for outdoor events. This is part of the 17 acre park, which will become the city of Newport’s fifth largest park.

Sustainability has taken up a home in Orange County and Newport Beach is no different. The new City Hall building has been designed by BCJ, engineers ARUP, and landscape architects Peter Walker & Partners. The project team included such sustainable design features as: passive heating and cooling systems including a raised floor air system, a building orientation to maximize natural ventilation and daylighting, and an advanced lighting system to reduce energy costs. The park will also include native and drought-tolerant species and will save significant amounts of water consumption in irrigation. The project is currently up for LEED Silver certification, and it will join a long list of recent projects with LEED certification in Orange County.